“Some Catholics in both political parties are deeply troubled by these issues. But too many Catholics just don’t really care. That’s the truth of it. If they cared, our political environment would be different. If 65 million Catholics really cared about their faith and cared about what it teaches, neither political party could ignore what we believe about justice for the poor, or the homeless, or immigrants, or the unborn child. If 65 million American Catholics really understood their faith, we wouldn’t need to waste each other’s time arguing about whether the legalized killing of an unborn child is somehow ‘balanced out’ or excused by three other good social policies.”
(...)
“We need to stop over-counting our numbers, our influence, our institutions and our resources, because they’re not real. We can’t talk about following St. Paul [2009 is the year of St. Paul-- BBW) and converting our culture until we sober up and get honest about what we’ve allowed ourselves to become. We need to stop lying to each other, to ourselves and to God by claiming to ‘personally oppose’ some homicidal evil -- but then allowing it to be legal at the same time.”
For faithful Catholics, it's so hard to take the bullshit coming out of the mouths of bishops' conferences and lukewarm clergymen. The namby-pamby, Vatican II-style, limp-wristed, dull-as-dishwater statements that are so watered down, so full of nuance, clarification and subtleties, that these declarations lose all their power. The hierarchy is so concerned at being inoffensive-- especially towards the opposition. Because if you have opposition from the elites-- especially the academic elites-- then you have no credibility-- in their brainwashed minds. In a way, the clergy are what the Quebec separatists call "une gang de colonisés".-- People who have so deeply internalized the standards of the foreign elites-- that is, foreign to Catholicism-- that they express fear and loathing towards our true tradition.
And then what happens is that you get a bunch of useful idiots like the Catholic Alliance for the Common Good being the catholiques de service for the very culture that holds them in contempt. In racist language, they're nigger kings for the culture of death. All these academic and religious types who've taken over the intellectual, spiritual and pastoral structures of the Church, they think they're serving the Church, when they're really the tools of the culture that holds them in contempt. These needy pleasers cringe at the idea that some liberal might misjudge them according to the actual teachings of the Church. They want to appear tolerant, open-minded, intellectually honed and unharsh, thinking that being a true witness of Christ is to seem Christ-like and not actually be Christ-like in fearlessly affirming the Truth of the Church that he founded.
As the Archbishop puts it:
In fact, people who openly reject God or dismiss Christianity as obsolete are sometimes far more honest and far less discouraging than Catholics who claim to be faithful to the Church but directly reject her guidance by their words and actions.”
EXACTLY.
All these bloody clergy who fear being misjudged, yet claim to speak for the Church are not being honest or faithful. Have a bloody backbone! I'm all for being gentle, understanding, open to dialogue and so forth.
But not at the expense of being a pleaser. I will not give up one iota of my Catholic Faith to be considered "enlightened" and "pastorally sensitive" by this culture.
I want the clergy and basically all Catholics who don't have one to grow a spine.
The more we bullshit each other, the more we weaken the Church. Just state the truth plainly, politely if possible, bluntly if not.
It's very difficult to live as a faithful Catholic in this Church. Because we are called to fillial piety, that is, to be reverent and obedient towards the bishops and the priests.
But we know that there is a time and a place for all forthright honesty. I'm sure the frustration of faithful Catholics is bursting at the seams. You just want to tell off the whole gang of them. It's so plainly obvious to anyone who reads and follows the Catechism that what is being said and done in the Church is not faithful to Church teaching. But they're the ones with the PhD's, and you're just an uneducated "drone" so what do you know?
I just hope that Archbishop's message catches on, and that other bishops echo his sentiments. He's a modern-day prophet.
(I know, I usually don't allow such vulgar language, but sometimes the vulgar word is the best one, and no this is not permission to use vulgar language in the combox).
H/T: Thoughts and Ruminations
